Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 11:31:06 -0500
Reply-To: robert shawn feller <feller@CARBONCOW.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: robert shawn feller <feller@CARBONCOW.COM>
Subject: Re: yet another fridge question (ok you experts)...
In-Reply-To: <4d7eb52ed90d0ae8cd1fd4e4f48eaf9b@uvic.ca>
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Thanks for the input.
One person did recommend lightly shaking plus the flip, but I think your
points on frailty are more valid.
I did read that a sure sign of hydrogen leak is a hot apportion unit but
cool boiler top...which I do not have. According to what the Dometic
troubleshooting tells me I most likely have a blockage.
Shawn
-----Original Message-----
From: Alistair Bell [mailto:albell@uvic.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 11:13 AM
To: robert shawn feller
Subject: Re: yet another fridge question (ok you experts)...
Shawn,
sure of the ohm measurement? I imagine the lower resistance you measured
would translate into "somewhat" less heating, but heck don't resistive
elements like the heater fail completely, and go to infinity resistance?
If you feel it to be hot, too hot to touch, I would say it was working fine.
Try the inverting fridge dodge. I have done it a few times over the
years, mind you my fridge has always worked fine apart from lighting
problems before combustion chamber cleaning. I wouldn't shake the
bejeesus out of it, no need and may be hard on all the brittle joints
(you and the fridge). Just be patient, turn it over. leave it
overnight, then back upright and leave for 12 or more hours before
operating.
Apart from the "stratification" of the ammonia compounds, which
inverting can fix, the other problem is leaking of the hydrogen from
the system. The copper get brittle, joints fail etc. Nothing to be done
about this. I have had some people express amazement that my Dometic
still works as well as it does after 24 years.
Good luck.
Alistair
'82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94
http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/
On 22-Mar-06, at 7:33 AM, robert shawn feller wrote:
Malcolm,
Thanks for the info. I'll know in a day or two if there is any chance of
this thing working after I flip it for the night and shake the piss out
of
it.
The only other possibility I have (and it's reaching) is the 110v
heating
element is out of spec. According to the dometic troubleshooting manual
the
OHM reading on that unit should be approx. 169ohm but I'm only hitting
137ohm. This is out of spec for their 10% rule they specify. Believe me
it
gets scary hot, but is it hot enough? Any comments?
I could manually override the switch and run the 12v and 110v elements
at
the same time to generate more heat, but that may be to much and ruin
the
boiler/chemicals (per manual).
If I decided to build my own cabinet (I hate to ruin the westy look but
common sense has to prevail sometime!) I'll let you know on the parts!
Shawn
